


Closure

by curiouser_curiouser



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Happy Meals, I will not stand for Solangelo, M/M, Summoning the Dead, Valdangelo FTW, and also Calypso's an island whore sorry Calypso fans, mcdonalds, takes place before all of the boo crap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 20:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1756645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiouser_curiouser/pseuds/curiouser_curiouser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Humor was a good way to hide the pain. </p><p>And Leo Valdez knew that this was it.<br/>He knew that this was the first and last time he'd see her again, and when he would get back on the ship, it would be all jokes and eye rolls.</p><p>He didn't know that one person, one son of Hades, could see through it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closure

This is it. 

What he's been wanting, yearning for all of these years.

He can't shake the whispers in his head out, and they keep asking Why? How is this even possible? Why is this even possible?

He knows that he needs to try, because something this big- special - would only happen once.

He was promised that. He knows the promise is unbreakable. 

Leo Valdez and Nico di Angelo stand on the grounds of the Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston, Texas. 

The two had waited for the place to close before walking throughout the area, and had turned off the cameras so any night security from the 

cemetery-tower wouldn't see them. Though, Leo figured that the donut-dunkers had already fallen asleep considering that the time was about 3am. 

The son of fire remembers Memorial Oaks pretty dang well, seeing as he visited with every chance he could get, and he had gotten a lot of chances. 

No one really cared enough to not let him leave. He only got a few forced head-shakes from his many foster families.

Nico has a few 'Happy Meals' from McDonalds in hand as they walk on the stoned pavement walkways between the dearly departed. 

Leo's hands are sweating, and he's pretty sure that he's never been so nervous. 

So many thoughts run through his head.

Will she be mad at me?

Why is Nico doing this?

Is she going to refuse to talk to me? Of course she will!

I killed her. 

"Calm down," Nico says, snapping Leo out of his thoughts. "I can feel nervousness radiating off of you." 

Leo raises his eyebrows. "Is that a power of yours? Not only feeling death, but, um, nervousness?" 

Nico dryly laughs. 

"No," He admits. "Your nervousness is just so comically and preposterously obvious, it's making me feel nervous. And I've done this a lot." 

Leo is dumbfounded, but doesn't speak. 

Part of him knows that he should calm down and that everything is going to be okay. 

However, the other part of him is telling him that going to see his dead mother, being summoned from Elysium with Happy Meals, and facing her after years and years of the fire that he caused, should be making him want to run himself to a pit to Tartarus and just jump in. 

Leo remembers that Percy and Annabeth had been in Tartarus, and Nico. 

Gods. 

Maybe he doesn't want to jump into Tartarus. 

The terrifyingly horrid screams from the nightmares that he heard from the rooms of all three visitors?

They weren't exactly pleasant. 

If Leo were in any one of those three positions, he probably would have cracked. 

But Nico went through it alone, when Annabeth and Percy were together. 

So, Leo tries his very hardest to relax. 

He really does, because he figures that being completely ignored from his mom isn't much worse than crawling throughout the darkest place known to Olympus. 

"This is it," Nico puts his free hand on Leo's chest from the side, staring down at a gravestone practically buried in flowers, ripped notes written on blackened parchment paper, and the pieces of unfinished inventions that had been started. 

Leo knows immediately that this is his mothers grave, because those flowers were bought with his money and put down with his hands, the notes on the blackened parchment paper were his notes to her, and the pieces of the unfinished inventions...

They were smashed with his tools and thrown on to the grave with Leo's small I'm sorry's and All my fault's, all words covered in the loud whimpers that sounded across the entire area. 

"I can feel it," Nico continues, his voice bitter. 

He puts the happy meals on the ground, a bit away from the gravestone. "You, um..." Nico looks hesitant, but talks anyway. "You put all of this here? The flowers, the notes?" 

Leo feels a quick rush of embarrassment. Death-Breath wouldn't understand. "Yeah, I did." It comes out a bit harsher than meant. 

Nico's eyes dart to the side for a moment, and Leo swears that he is avoiding his gaze. "Me too," Nico admits, eyes locked on his shoes. "Notes, I mean. For Bianca. She died a while back. I used to, um, I used to write notes to her and put them on her grave before she chose rebirth. All the time." 

Leo could tell that Nico was trying hard not to cry. Percy had told him about Nico's sister, and back when Nico was a gamer geek for Mythomagic. 

At first, he found 'happy-Nico' hard to believe.

"She would've been proud," Leo tells Nico, of whom has innocent tears falling from his eyes, surprised when Leo says what he does. 

"What?" 

"You helped save Percy and Annabeth from Tartarus. Heck, you helped save the world! And you're still helping with the whole 'summoning dead mother' thing with me." Leo pauses for a moment. "What I said was, 'She would've been proud', because it's true. She would've been." 

There is a sudden gleam in Nico's eyes that hasn't been seen before, at least not by Leo.

It is a great resemblance of pride and hope. 

Nico sniffles and turns towards the grave, leaving the short conversation behind. "Sorry to tell you," He starts. "but, I kind of, uh, I need you to move the flowers and the notes." Nico grabs a piece of one of the broken inventions. "And these." 

His voice is cold and bitter, and Leo doesn't exactly know the reason that Nico takes given complements as insults. 

He doesn't exactly do that with the girls. Or Jason. Or Frank. 

Leo takes a deep breath before talking. "Okay," He looks down at the gravestone, trying to decide how to do it. 

How to pick up the notes that he cried on, and just toss them to the side. 

Not an easy thing to do. 

He inhales sharply as he gets down on his knees before the grave. 

One at a time, he grabs the torn notes that rest on her grass.

He can practically remember writing them, every single one that he touches with his long, oil-smeared fingers. As Leo grabs them and carefully sets them aside, he always seems to catch the sentence written in bold that is in every single note. 'I'm sorry.' 

Leo holds back numerous tears from falling and shuts his eyes tightly before he starts to grab the pieces of unfinished projects and the flowers. 

Honeysuckles were always her favorite. 

Leo remembers bringing them home to her on her birthday, and the scent of them filling the house. 

He remembers the loud bangs of the hammers and the creaks in the metal from the projects they worked on in the machine-shop. 

The memories almost seem like there could still be more made.

Not anymore.

"Do you need help?" Nico asks, getting down on his knees beside Leo, cautious to touch anything. 

"I'm-I'm fine," Leo tells him, even though it is probably the most obvious lie told in the century.

He suddenly feels a cold hand on his shoulder, and a moment before realizing that it's Nico, Leo thinks it's a zombie or something. 

"It's okay to cry."

Leo knows that it's okay. 

It's just not okay for him. 

"So," Leo mutters, changing the subject. "How does this 'summon the dead' thing work? I'm done pulling all of the stuff off. Do we just throw the happy meals at it?" 

Nico sighs. "We need to dig it up," Nico informs Leo, earning an eye twitch and an attempt at a death-glare. "Then throw them in."

Nico takes his hand from Leo's shoulder. 

"I can't guarantee that this will work," Nico tells him. "I tried on Bia-" He pauses. "my sister so many times, and it only worked after... after Percy showed. I'm not saying it won't work, it might, but I'm not saying it will." 

Leo feels enraged all of a sudden and he wants to throttle Nico for bringing him here when there's a chance that it won't even work!

Then he remembers what Nico said about it only working when Percy showed, and that must've been hard for him; knowing that his sister didn't want to talk to him, but to Percy, of whom she had only known for a week. 

"I understand," Leo whispers, loud enough for Nico to hear.

Leo does understand. He understands that Nico went through a lot, and he understands that Nico shouldn't be blamed for the things he went through. 

"Nico?" Leo turns to the son of death. "How exactly do we, uh, dig up the grave? Got a shovel or something, or are we just going to use our hands?"

Nico starts to laugh, and Leo thinks that it suits him very well. 

"No!" Nico says, muffled laughs still sounding. "Gods, no!"

Leo is very confused, but the sound of Nico's laughs make him a bit less nervous. 

"Let me show you," Nico mumbles. "Step back." 

Leo takes a leap backward, almost tumbling onto another persons grave. 

Ew. 

Nico dryly chuckles at that sight, but becomes serious when he turns towards Esperanza's grave.

Leo watches as Hades son takes a deep breath and clenches his fists. 

He opens his hands up, and starts to raise them up. 

Suddenly, the ground starts to shake, making Leo tumble forward, but Nico still stands his ground. 

His hands are slowly rising up, and his skin is even more pale than usual.

He looks almost possessed, but Leo knows he isn't because he stops. 

"That. Is how I dig up a grave," Nico says, walking to wear the happy meals are. 

Leo frowns. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you do this often." 

Nico just nods and grabs the McDonalds Happy Meal Box.

Leo watches as Nico picks out a cheese burger from the box and softly flicks his wrist, letting the burger fall into the grave. 

To Leo, this whole 'summoning the dead with happy meals' is kind of, um, off...?

Nico dumps a tiny fry box into the ground as Leo speaks. "How do the dead eat happy meals if they're, you know, dead?"

Nico freezes. "I don't... Ugh." He throws the apple slices into the ground. "Are you going to help, or are you just going to stand there and ask questions like an idiot?" 

Leo mocks offense at the discourteous inquiry by clawing at his oh so delicate heart, earning an eye roll from the Ghost King. 

After the little charade, Leo walks over to where the Happy Meals sit and grabs a box. 

The front reads 'I'm lovin' it'; usual McDonalds catch phrase, and the back is filled with advertisements of their newest toys. 

He opens the box, now remembering exactly why the two half-bloods were throwing Happy Meals into a grave. 

Leo's heart starts to beat rapidly in his chest, once again, and his hands start to sweat. 

He sharply inhales before throwing some apple slices into the grave, along with the usual fun-size fry box. 

Leo never really understood why they called it 'fun-size'. 

Smaller isn't fun, bigger is.

He pushes the thought aside, opening the six-piece Chicken-McNuggets and putting some into the ground. 

"I think that should be enough," Nico says. "Your mom doesn't seem like one to eat too much fake food, the way you describe her." 

"Again," Leo says. "That brings me back to the question of exactly how they eat?"

Nico scowls at the Repair Boy, and it is hard for Leo to hold Nico's gaze; his eyes are like the abyss, maybe even darker than Tartarus itself. 

Creepy. 

"Are you ready?" Nico asks, putting a hand on Leo's shoulder. 

A chill runs down his spine as he remembers what they're here for, and he doesn't really know why he keeps forgetting. 

Nico can do that to you, when he's not being all creepy and... dead.

"As I'll ever be," Leo clenches his fingers into a fist, knowing that he's not quite ready yet. 

But if he doesn't take this opportunity now, he'll never get it again. 

Nico takes a deep, sharp breath and shuts his eyelids tightly. He looks extremely constipated- Er, focused.

"Esperanza Valdez," He shouts, making Leo wince. 

The scent of honeysuckle fills Leo's nose at the sudden glow in front of him. 

It is faint at first, but the astonishing light grows larger until Leo sees a face. 

A familiar face. 

One that he has missed so much. So much. 

"M-Mom?" Leo stutters as he glances over to Nico, who is slowly backing away into the shadows. 

"Hello, mi hijo," Esperanza smiles. 

Oh, how he misses that simple tug of the lips. 

"I'm so sorry," Leo tells her, his voice barely audible. Tears are daring to fall down his cold face. "It-It was all my fault."

She frowns. "Oh, mi hijo," Esperanza says. "You cannot blame yourself. I was meant to die, we all are."

"It didn't have to be so soon," Small tears fall from Leo's brown eyes. 

"It did," She tells him, smiling. "If the incident hadn't happened, you would not be able to complete your destiny."

"What destiny?" the son of fire asks, a bit angry and overwhelmed. "Destiny isn't fighting for your life, Mamá. Destiny isn't being the odd one out. Destiny... It isn't loosing what you care about. That goes for every member on the Argo II, Festus, and you."

Esperanza shakes her head. "What is destiny? To you, what is destiny?" 

Leo is silent because he doesn't have an answer. 

What is destiny?

The only sound filling the night air are the crickets for afar. 

"I-I don't... I don't know." Leo's voice echoes around the area. 

"Then how do you know that destiny isn't fighting for your life, or being the odd one out, or losing what you care about?" Esperanza puts a hand on Leo's shoulder, sending a chill down his spine. At the same time, he wouldn't have it any other way. 

"Oh, mi hijo, it isn't your fault. Live your destiny without worrying." 

Leo has tears running down his face. "H-How? What's my destiny?" He sniffles. 

"He, is your destiny," Esperanza looks below her. 

"Who?" 

"I love you, mi hijo."

"I-I... I love you, too." 

"I have to go now," She says, a saddened smile across her pink lips. "Goodbye, mi hijo." 

Leo inhales sharply. 

"Goodbye, Mamá," 

Esperanza's glow is flickering until it is completely gone. 

Leo feels a wave of relief drown him, because he got to say goodbye. 

And he heard it from her that it wasn't his fault, and he also heard from her that he is his destiny, and he doesn't have any idea what that means. 

He is satisfied, yet uncomfortably unsatisfied. 

Who is the he that is his destiny? 

What does that even mean?

"Are you okay?" A voice asks, footsteps being heard from behind him. 

A hand grips his shoulder.

"I'm...fine." Leo tells him, and for once, he's telling the truth. 

"We should get out of here," Nico says, stepping closer. "It'll be opening in about two hours." 

Leo nods and wipes away the stains of his tears.

After Nico is done putting the dirt and grass back, covering the dug up grave, Leo says something that is long overdue. 

"Thank you, di Angelo,"

Nico looks up from the ground, just coming out of a daze. 

He is obviously startled, but sniffles and wipes his forehead with his sleeve. "Yeah, well..." 

Leo swears that he sees a blush, a big one, at that. 

"The usual response is 'Oh, no problem', or maybe 'You deserve it, buddy.'"

Nico rolls his eyes and steps closer to Leo. "Maybe you haven't figured it out yet," Nico mutters. "but, I'm not usual."

"You're anything but," Leo smirks. The two stand in an awkward silence for short seconds.

"Let's just go." Nico says, gripping tighter on the hilt of his sword. "The others are waiting." 

"Go ahead," Leo mumbles. "I'll be right behind ya." 

Nico gives a sympathetic smile before walking away. 

Leo turns towards his mothers grave and crouches to his knees. 

He grabs one of the blackened notes. 

The son of fire reads it; At least three times, and he remembers writing it. 

Every second of the tears he had shed, every moment his hand would start to hurt but when he didn't put down the pen. 

He lights his finger on fire, and brings it to the note. It isn't long before the note is on fire. 

Leo drops it to the ground after staring at the flaming paper in his hands, and steps on it. The fire is out. 

But his fire is just starting to burn again.

**Author's Note:**

> Should I make this a chaptered series?  
> Comment and tell me!
> 
> Also, Kudos is appreciated.


End file.
